Paint away. Leave the beams, but paint the wainscoting and the crown trim in the rest of the room. See the image below that contrasts the fireplace with the rest of the built-ins. That might help your room since your ceilings appear so very low. I would also recommend you change out the ceiling fan. Select something that hugs the ceiling, and no light kit. Supplement the lighting in your room with lamps that provide a good quality light that goes up as well as out.

It won't be an easy job, but I'd leave the brick as is and paint the book cases, cabinets, and wainscoting, leave the FP mantel and back wall as is, and hang some kind of horizontal artwork on that back FP Wall, paint the crown moulding, leave the beams as they are, paint the walls a more saturated color, and paint the walls behind the book shelves a neat-o color.

It would really brighten up the room, bring it up to more contemporary, but maintain the cozy rustic feel as well.

Is this work you'd do yourself? wouldn't be easy. You have to sand everything first, then put three coats of BIN primer over the pine, and then paint. Knots in pine bleed right through paint, which is why you have to prime pine with BIN, three coats, before painting.

Thank you for your responses! Yes we will be doing the work ourselves. We had a professional paint our knotty pine kitchen. He prepped the pine as you mentioned with 3 coats of Bin. I know it will be a tough job, but hopefully worth it in the end. Should the wainscoting be the same color as the built ins? Also, do you recommend any colors other than white/off white?

I'd paint everything white (even the brick) except the beams. My family member did that and it turned out great! Just like those photos posted above.

If this were my room, I would first try to tweak the lighting plan before I picked up a paintbrush. I would try adding under cabinet lights, two layers of them, across the top and above the bottom cabinets. I see you have four lamps in the room, plus a light kit in the fan, but they all direct the light down. I would add a torchiere light to the room to shoot some light into the ceiling. Maybe you could place small spotlights on the back of the ceiling beam closest to the fireplace and direct the light at the bricks.

And this is just my quirk, but I would remove the light kit from the ceiling fan. I don't like the faux-victorian lights that hang from so many ceiling fans, and I don't like the light that comes from them.

I would paint all the wood white but leave the brick in its original state! The contrast would look awesome and the brick would break up that all white look!

I'd definitely paint the wainscoting and crown moulding, and I'd use BM White Dove, which is a wonderful, creamy white - not stark but not yellow either. It's a great trim color.

On the FP wall, I'd first paint the shelves and cabinetry, including the vertical trim on each side of the FP, and the very top horizontal trim across the top. I'd leave the mantel, back wall and arced frieze board of the FP as they are (can always paint if you decide you want uniform paint on that wall, but it's much harder to strip it if you decide you want the FP rustic).

Then I'd paint the walls a warm neutral with some depth. BM Brandon Beige comes to mind (see pic). BM Hot Apple Spice behind the book shelves with lighting inside the shelves.

Well, painting the wood wouldn't work for me. I think it looks great as is. Cozy. Charming. It appears to be in great shape. I agree with graywings that you need more actual light in the room. Just painting the pine white …any shade of white …won't necessarily make the room actually be any brighter, and even if they don't bleed through the bin, you will still have knotholes. The inspiration pics may be deceivingly bright, because they are well-lit for the photo shoot.